The design, certification, and manufacture of a hand-held mobile communication and/or data collection devices for use in a potentially explosive or volatile atmosphere present an array of challenges. Modern communication equipment, such as smartphones, portable tablets, and other hand-held computing devices (i.e., “mobile devices”), require significant power and stored capacitance to operate the vast array of power hungry components that make up such equipment. Such components include micro-processors, 4G and similar telecommunications components, Wi-Fi, GPS, camera, touch screen, and the operating system itself. The power to operate and provide all of these features and functionality in a small, lightweight, and space-constrained form factor further complicates the design of such mobile devices.
Intrinsic safety relies on the mobile device being designed in such a way that it is unable to release sufficient energy, by either thermal or electrical means, which could cause ignition of a flammable substance. The thermal and electrical energies required to ignite various explosive groups have been proven by experimentation. Data has been produced, and can be used, to indicate safe levels of energy for various categories of hazardous environments in which such mobile devices may be used.
Historically, for a device to be certified as intrinsically safe, manufacturers have either had to: (i) sacrifice speed, performance, and functionality to limit power and current used by the device to stay within IS standards or (ii) to enable fully-powered and functional components to be used within the device but sacrificing size, shape, weight, and portability of the device as compared to conventional hand-held devices. Therefore, a need exists for intrinsically safe mobile devices that have a conventional form factor (size, shape, weight, and portability) but that can be certified IS for safe use in explosive atmospheres or hazardous environments.
The above needs and features, as well as additional aspects and business applications, are disclosed herein and will become readily apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art after reading and studying the following summary of the present inventions, the detailed description of preferred embodiments, and the claims included hereinafter. The present inventions meet one or more of the above-referenced needs as described herein in greater detail.